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Following the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's order of a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations at the San Rafael Mine, the company is now claiming that the timelines for the process are not clear.

Given the doubts that exist about the term that the government has to complete the process of community consultation, the mining company has decided to make another staff cut, given that it is unknown how long it will be before they can resume mining operations, which were halted on July 3, 2017.

Following the order to hold community consultations as a requirement for resuming operations at the San Rafael Mine in Guatemala, the authorities are waiting for the ruling to be be made firm in order to start a pre-consultation process.

After more than 300 days of waiting for a decision from the authorities, as a result of an appeal for legal protection filed by the environmental organization Calas, the Constitutional Court (CC) last week ordered a community consultation to be carried out, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), into the operations area of the mine, in El Escobal, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, department of Santa Rosa.

At last the Constitutional Court of Guatemala has spoken about the operation of Minera San Rafael, which has been paralyzed for more than a year, ordering a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations.

The project has been halted since mid-2017, when the environmental organization Calas filed an application for a declaration of fundamental rights against the mine, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not carried out the community consultations before authorizing the operation licenses.

The protests which since the beginning of the year have been held by workers in the Cobre Panama project in Colón have paralyzed work on the power line and the 300 MW thermoelectric plant.

The labor dispute that has prevented the project from progressing arose after both parties, the workers' union and the company Minera Panamá, accused each other of not complying with some points of the agreement made between them in January, with intermediation on the part of the Ministry of Labor.

Due to better prices in the international market, in 2017 mineral exports totaled $183 million, 17% more than was reported at the end of 2016.

The Central Bank of Honduras reported that last year "...Shipments of gold -primarily to the US- amounted to US $100.1 million, US $5.6 million (5.9%) compared to last year's value."This increase is explained by an "... increase of 4.9% in volume and 1% in price."

In 2017 the value of sales to Germany and Belgium fell by 6% and 29% respectively, which is explained in part by the suspension of operations at El Escobal mine.

According to figures from Banco de Guatemala, between 2016 and 2017 exports from Guatemala to Germany fell from $148 million to $139 million, and to Belgium they dropped from $128 million to $90 million.The decrease in sales to Belgium is explained by the decrease in the export of lead, as it went down from $70 million in 2016 to $17 million in 2017.

Industrialists are demanding that the Constitutional Court rule on the request for legal protection that was granted in favor of an environmental group and which is keeping the mine's operations in a state of paralysis.

The project has been paralyzed since an environmental organization filed an request for legal protection against the mine, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines did not carry out the necessary community consultations before authorizing the licenses.

A ruling by the Guatemalan Supreme Court has granted an action for infringement of fundamental rights and freedoms in favor of the environmental group that claimed there was a lack of consultation with the local community, but the ruling does allow the mining company to resume work.

The condition is that the Ministry of Energy and Mines must carry out the community consultation established by ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples.Licenses to operate the mine were suspended in early July. See: "Another Mining Company Suspended in Guatemala"

It has been estimated that by the end of the year extraction of mineral resources will have generated about $50 million in revenue.

Extraction of minerals for the production of marble, gypsum, limestone, quartz, common clays and other materials could generate about $50 million this year, according to projections made by the Natural Resources and Environment Secretariat.

The Constitutional Court has confirmed the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, which last June suspended the operating licenses of the Escobal mine, run by Minera San Rafael.

In its resolution, the Constitutional Court argued that"... when the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) authorized the operations, it denied the existence of the Xinca group and did not consult them about the work they would do."

The mining company Cóndor Gold is trying to put an end to the blockades that the local population have held in place for ten days at the La India mine in Nicaragua.

Exhausting all possible resources, the company Cóndor Gold is proposing a dialogue to the leaders of the group of local inhabitants who are protesting against the mining project in the municipality of Santa Rosa del Peñón.